Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

PERTHSHIRE.
531
of the Creator's works, limestone, where the soil is
of an inferior staple, exists in abundance, and, where
the soil is superior, lies remote, and can be procured
only at a great expense. Inexhaustible rocks of it,
uniformly of a grey colour, occur in Ranuoch, Glen-
lyon, the southern part of Breadalbane, and the west
end of Loch-Earn. A beautiful limestone, of the
density of marble, of a blue ground, and finely varie-
gated with streaks of white, occurs at Callander and
at Aberfoil. Warble of superior quality, and much
beauty, at once of a fine green, of a light grey, and
of a pure white colour, is found likewise in Glentilt ;
and thence, as well as from the former places, has
been exported to a great distance, as a material for
fancy ornaments and architectural embellishments.
Limestone quarries have been worked in Port-of-
Menteith, in Glenartney, in Strathardle, and in Glen-
shee ; but, in general, they were rendered uncom-
pensating by the dearth of fuel. Extensive limeworks
are maintained in Stormont from inexhaustible sup-
plies of material on the south side of Loch-Cluny.
Lime has also been burnt in Cargill and Longforgan;
but in these, and other places, it is much limited by
scarcity of fuel. Though limestone is unknown
throughout Strathearn, and the country around Perth,
the farmers purchase it at very high prices at the
harbours, and carry it far into the interior. — Iron-
stone exists in abundance in the coal-field of the dis-
trict south-east of the Ochils Large beds of fire-
clay occur on the estate of Blair-castle, and other
places in the vicinity of Culross. Roofing slates,
Borne of a purple colour, some of an azure blue, and
some of a muddy brown complexion along the cut-
ters, are extensively quarried in the Highlands.
Breccia, or plum-pudding stone, — consisting of a
great variety of small and different-coloured stones,
firmly cemented by a brown basis, and so compact as
to form a very durable building material, — occurs in
the vicinity of Drummond-castle, in Strathearn,
around Callander in Monteith, and appears to extend
south-west to Dumbartonshire. Sandstone, of very
prime quality for building, has long and extensively
been quarried, both for home use and for exportation,
at Longannat on the Forth, and at Kingoodie in the
Carse of Gowrie. Copper occurs among the south-
ern Ochils. Lead has been extensively mined at
Tyndrum ; and it occurs also at Benledi, near Cal-
lander, and at Glenlyon in Breadalbane. Shell marl
abounds in Stormont, and has been plentifully used ;
and in Strathearn, it was of later discovery, is less
abundantly, and has been less highly appreciated.
Boulders of the sulphate of barytes, each about the
size of an egg, occur in the bed of the Shaggy in
Strathearn — The prevailing rocks in all the High-
lands of Perthshire are mica-slate, gneiss, clay-slate,
chlorite-slate, some varieties of hornblende-slate,
with occasional beds of quartz, and some patches of
granite. Mica-slate alone forms the entire mass of
some of the monarch mountains, such as Ben-Lawers
and Ben-Voirlich. A narrow tract of clay-slate may
be traced north-eastward, along the lower edge of
the Grampians, from boundary to boundary of the
county, and, in one uninterrupted sweep, comes up
from Gareloch in Dumbartonshire, and passes on to
Stonehaven in Kincardineshire. A bed of limestone
— furnishing some of those local supplies which we
have noticed as quarried — extends from Leney, near
Callander, north-eastward, quite to the extremity of
the county, and passes on to Braemar. Greywacke,
frequently running into sandstone, a coarse red con-
glomerate, and hornblende porphyry, composes most
of those isolated hills which, in several localities,
aggregate in crowds at the foot of the Grampians,
and impart to the landscape an aspect of tangledness
and picturesque confusion. A red sandstone, gene-
rally regarded as the old red, seems to lie beneath
very nearly the whole of the large defined Strath-
more, occupying all the Lowlands between the Gram-
pians on the one side, and the Ochils and the Sidlaws
on the other, and extending from the Forth to the
boundary with Meigle. Sandstone, also pronounced
to be the old red, but containing fossils, some curious
specimens have engaged the attention of the most
learned geologists, lies beneath the Carse of Gowrie.
The geognostic features of the Ochils and the Sid-
laws are noticed in the articles on these hill-ranges.
Trap-dikes are comparatively unextensive, and where
they do occur, consist principally of greenstone.
The soils of Perthshire are so endlessly varied, and
run so much into one another, that they can with as
much difficulty be perfectly separated as the blend-
ing colours of the rainbow ; yet, for all the purposes
of general description of their intrinsic nature, and
of proximate calculation as to how far they severally
prevail, they may be reduced to the six classes of
clay, haugh, loam, till, sand or gravel, and moss or
moor. — Along the Forth, from the bridge of Gart-
more to the bridge of Allan, a tract of 18 miles, all
the flat land is a deep stiff clay, of various degrees
of fertility, the blue being generally more fertile than
the yellow. In the Carse of Gowrie, all the flat
land — which constitutes immensely the larger portion
of the district — is a deep rich clay ; and while the
summits of the different swells, which run diagonally
down the Carse toward the frith, are covered with a
loam which is supposed to lie on iron ore, the skirts
of the swells have a reddish-coloured soil, which pos-
sesses some affinity to clay, and which, owing to its
having formerly been used for constructing the houses
of the lower orders, bears the provincial name of
mortar. From the bridge of Forteviot on the Earn,
to the confluence of that river with the Tay, extends
a tract of pale brown clay, modified by some fresh
water deposits, and by the effects of prolonged til-
lage. At Gogar and Menstrie, on the Devon, occurs
a small tract altogether similar to this in Strathearn.
In some places about Cupar Grange, there is a strong
stiff mould, which appears to be a deep till trans-
muted by georgical improvement, and which has more
affinity to clay than to any other description of soil.
On the banks of the Isla, particularly about Bendo-
chy, clay prevails over- several pendicles of land ; but,
wherever it has been much overflown by the river,
it has received large deposits of fine sediment, and
has been mixed up with it into a soil of great ferti-
lity. About the town of Perth, in Strathtay, below
Dunkeld, and in various limited localities throughout
the Lowlands of the county, are pendicles of rich
soil more or less thoroughly argillaceous, — clay either
in a comparatively native state, or partially trans-
muted by manures and by the deposits of streams ■
Haugh soil, or the fructiferous crust of flat stream-
washed lands, formed by the fresh water deposition,
of the finest and most attenuated particles of earth,
necessarily varies in quality witli its deepness and
with the nature of the materials of which it is com-
posed. Much haugh land occurs on the Earn, wher-
ever the river occasionally flows beyond its ordinary
channel, — on the Powis, — on the Allan, — on the
Goodie, — on the Devon below Dollar, — in various
parts of Balquidder and Callander, — at Killin, — and
in such portions of Glendochart, Glenfillan, Glenlo-
chy, and other districts, as are frequently overflown
by their streams. On the Isla, where it holds a
westerly course, the haughs are uncommonly rich
and extensive ; on various parts of the long course of
the Tay, especially for some miles before it receives
the Isla, they are considerable ; and at the mouth of
the Ericlit, and at the west end of Loch-Tummel,
they are of very noticeable extent Leam, or soil of